I’ve applied for several jobs outside of tech or only tech-adjacent. I’m not happy to give up significant income and benefits, but you don’t get everything you want.
What AI-first means for companies who are not actually AI companies is elevating staff with the right degree of _partiinost_ around AI and using vendor AI products to show how many Jira issues have been closed in pursuit of the latest exciting and important new transformation.
I can relate to a certain type of reluctance, in that I live in a part of the US that has never needed air conditioning. I don't look forward to the hassle and expense of installing a heat pump. I don't look forward to the cost of running one. And I won't like resigning to the fact that the summers I've experienced my whole life, as did my ancestors, are over forever.
Of course when it's regularly in the upper 80sF / 30C I will give in. I just empathize.
My worst interview was decades ago where the building was a walk-up and the office was on the 8th or 9th floor, something absurd. It was winter, I had layers of warm clothing on, and I walked into the interview a sweaty disaster and when my sweat became drippingly apparent panic kicked in and made it even worse. At the end of the ordeal I had to walk down the steps which also sucked.
I feel differently. Like the author of this article, I attended an expensive, quasi-prestigious prep school in the American South _and_ went to Columbia. Kids in both milieus were competing with each other to be the weird ones.
It’s also worth noting that tbe author has spent a chunk of her career in advertising, using what she knows (first hand!) about how young brains are seduced by the verboten to sell trend forecasting to companies who want to mine that ore.
As a parent I consider it a specific challenge to help my daughter discern between behavior that looks or seems cool and behavior that is actually worth emulating.
I went home from a bar in 2003 knowing only the first name of a wonderful girl I chatted with that night, and thanks to Friendster I was able to locate her in a city of over 8MM people and find a way to contact her. We are married with a family now.
If you consider Marketplace its own product it’s a massive win but they haven’t monetized it beyond some very ineffective post boosting and advertising. I honestly think they could charge 10% of list price for items over $50, plus membership levels that reduce or remove listing fees. and make a significant amount of money.
It’s a shame bc very old threads contain massively valuable information and conversation on topics I care about.
One of the best forums moved to a Google Group long ago and that’s maybe the best bad outcome.